One of the uber-rich extreme rightwing nutters is Peter G. Peterson. Pete owns a shitload of media conglomerates that masquerade as 'news publications', among other things.
He hates entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. His flagship publication is The Fiscal Times.The Fiscal Times likes to quote only from the Think Tanks that Pete Peterson has set up, giving the appearance of being unbiased and newsworthy.
Nothing could be further from the truth of course. From Politico, not exactly a mainstream unbiased news source either:
The Post and the new publication announced an agreement last month to jointly produce content “focusing on budget and fiscal issues,” and the first article from The Fiscal Times appeared in The Post on Thursday. Headlined “Support grows for tackling nation’s debt,” it described growing momentum for “a special commission to make the tough decisions that will be required to dig the nation out of debt.”
In a letter to The Post’s ombudsman, 14 academic and public-policy experts on Social Security said the newspaper should “rescind the partnership, “reserve opinion pieces for the op-ed page, and not allow itself to be a propaganda arm for ideologues who use fiscal distress as a stalking horse to destroy social insurance.”
Corporate Media, and their propaganda wing, are here to stay folks. The only way to see these groups for what they are is with academia and other watchdog groups screaming and exposing such horseshit that is passed off as journalism and news to the masses. Media Matters has a nice section of background info on this dirtbag Pete Peterson
here. The progressive site Campaign for America's Future has a good writeup on this little endeavor between neocon rich guy Peterson and the Washington Post
here. TPM has a great writeup
here on this douche nozzle and his fake news efforts.
Below is a
letter sent to the big cheese at WaPo, Andrew Alexander, Ombudsman at the Washington Post, denouncing the fake news article. It is signed by a plethora of academic scholars and experts in the field of economics:
Dear Mr. Alexander:
We strongly protest the printing in the Washington Post of an article taken verbatim from an extremely biased source. The article, "Support grows for tackling nation's debt" (page A-10, 12/31/09) appears to be a straightforward, objective news story, only opaquely revealing that the piece was “produced by the Fiscal Times.” Nowhere is it disclosed that the Fiscal Times is funded by an individual, Peter G. Peterson, who has spent the last thirty years in a crusade to undermine Social Security. Shame on the Post for presenting this propaganda as journalism.
Consistent with Mr. Peterson's bias, the story glowingly reports increasing support for a deficit reduction commission, and fails ever to mention that over forty national organizations, including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Common Cause, NAACP, National Organization for Women, SEIU, to name just a few, have been outspoken in their opposition to the proposal. Indeed, most readers would have little idea from this story that there was any opposition whatsoever to the proposed commission.
Even worse, the Post has apparently entered into a partnership with the Fiscal Times and plans to publish other artilces from that source. We respectfully urge the Post to rescind the partnership. The Post should maintain its independence, reserve opinion pieces for the op-ed page, and not allow itself to be a propaganda arm for ideologues who use fiscal distress as a stalking horse to destroy social insurance.
Please note that we are submitting this letter to the Post's editors for publication. Notwithstanding that, we respectfully request that you respond to us about this very serious matter. In that regard, we have provided the contact information for the first signatory at the end of the email. As you can see, the response among Social Security experts was swift and strong, notwithstanding that the piece appeared on New Year’s Eve. In the event that we receive more signatories over the weekend, as we expect we will, we will forward the additional names to you on Monday.
Sincerely,
Nancy J. Altman, author, The Battle for Social Security (John Wiley & Sons)
Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
Merton C. Bernstein, Coles Professor of Law Emeritus, Washington University
Robert H. Binstock, Professor of Aging, Health, and Society, Case Western Reserve University
Suzanne Blouin, retired, Office of Communications, Social Security Administration
Barbara Burt, Executive Director, Frances Perkins Center
Dale Coberly, co-author of the Northwest Plan to restore Social Security to balance
Nancy Dapper, Executive Director, Western & Central WA Chapter, Alzheimer's Association
Patricia E. Dilley, Professor of Law, University of Florida
Stephen Gorin, Professor, Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH
Roger Hickey, Co-Director, America’s Future
Eric Kingson, Professor, Syracuse University School of Social Work
Robert Kuttner, Founding Co-Editor, American Prospect
Theodore Marmor, Professor Emeritus, Yale University
Gerald A. McIntyre, Directing Attorney, National Senior Citizens Law Center
Lawrence Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institute
Maya Rockeymoore, President, Global Policy Solutions
Max J. Skidmore, University of Missouri Curators' Professor of Political Science, Thomas Jefferson Fellow, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Joseph White, Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Center for Policy Studies, Case Western Reserve University
Those are some mighty big guns calling WaPo a propaganda arm of the neocon extremists. Good for them, speak truth to the powerful and publicize the shit out of it!!!!
If you care about journalism – you should make your views known to the Post at ombudsman@washpost.com. Dont be shy..email the sumbitch today.
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
